4 contracts that could hold the NY Mets back in 2026 and beyond

The Mets should have known the two-year, $34 million pact they signed with Frankie Montas would go poorly

Remaining: one year, $17 million

The Mets followed the en vogue trend of bringing in a distressed "asset" on a pillow when they signed Frankie Montas last winter. The idea was a short two-year agreement that Montas could escape if things went well for him in 2025.

While in many cases (see: Alonso, Pete) such a deal can work out beautifully, the Mets should have known better with Montas.

First, there's his established poor history in New York. The crosstown Yankees acquired him from the then-Oakland Athletics in 2022, hoping for a front-of-the-rotation arm, and instead got a 6.35 ERA over 39.2 pitiful innings down the stretch. Montas would pitch 1.1 more innings for the Yankees, as a shoulder injury wiped out nearly the entirety of his season.

His 2024 comeback was split between the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers, where his performance was varying degrees of bad, with ERAs of 5.01 with the Reds and 4.55 in Milwaukee. Outside of logging 150 innings, it's hard to see exactly what convinced David Stearns to add a second year to this gamble, or why he'd guarantee him so much money.

Montas's recent injury was nothing new. Prior to the 2022 trade, Montas had only topped 96 innings once, tossing an unusual 187 frames in 2021.

It wasn't entirely surprising that Montas began the season on the IL, nor was it a shock that his recovery was a slow process. The only thing that is worth an eyebrow raise is just how similar his 38.2-inning, 6.28 ERA performance in 2025 was to the Yankees portion of his 2022 campaign.

Unlike the others, Montas's contract doesn't extend past 2026, but that doesn't mean his presence on the team won't have wider implications. The Mets now know that they can't count on him for anything next season, meaning the way they fill his rotation spot might extend out past 2026. As it stands now, what his role will be is anyone's guess, but whatever it is the club has him do, they'll be paying him $17 million to do it.